forged on stage (a No Filter post)

My Dad is consulting director for a community theatre project here in Bacolod. Thrice a week, he goes off to help out direct a staging of an Ilonggo adaptation of Anatomiya ng Korupsyon by Malou Jacob with some local theatre actors here and the following day, he shares his experiences with my Mom and I about what happened during rehearsals.

And last night, he talked about the bonds that is forged during the rehearsal process of staging a play and how, when everyone is pretty much committed to the whole process, these bonds are very intense and unbreakable.

My brother (who is part of the production), my Mom, and my Dad all have an extensive background in the theatre and while my Dad was talking about bringing dinner to their next rehearsals, because of the bonds that are forming in this production, I remarked that having worked on No Filter, I finally understood what it was that they were talking about. I know and feel first-hand what it means to create powerful, power connections with other people through the process of putting up a play.

Currently, my desktop wallpaper, because I miss my squad so badly, including the people not in the picture which is pretty much everyone else in the backstage and the two who couldn’t make it to the press preview performance, Mik and Paolo

After I had said that, my Mom shared with me that they knew that it was something I was going to suffer greatly moving to Bacolod because of my situation. Apparently, even before I had flown back here to get better, that was what they were scared of; they knew what I was going through with the show and that I had one more weekend to go before the show closed.

They weren’t scared about the physical and medical condition that was wrecking havoc in my body. They knew they could fix that with doctor’s care and hospitalisation and medicine. They were worried about my emotional state to be taken away from the No Filter crew before it ended.

On my first week since I got here, my Dad kept asking me how I was everyday and I was still suffering immensely from the damages to my kidney that I was getting a little frustrated having to find an answer that was different from the day before. I’m okay, I would say groggily, I’m just weak, that’s all. Apparently, he wasn’t asking about how I was feeling physically but he was checking my emotional state.

He wanted to know how I was dealing with the loss of my new family. Because let’s face it, the No Filter people are my family too now.

And then, yesterday, our videographer Gelo Yellow posted another behind the scenes video of No Filter 2.0. It was 16 minutes of just behind-the-scenes footage of all our little company and the goofing around we do backstage and pre-show.

I have no idea if this is going to be enjoyable to any of you but seeing it last night sent me into a wave of sentimentality and nostalgia for the show and I was just rendered inert in bed at around two in the morning.

I miss these guys. I miss them so much. I’m glad to hear from them all the time on WhatsApp and to see snippets of their lives on Facebook and Instagram. But I miss them and being around them.

And it’s okay for me to say that and it’s okay for me to say it aloud. Because I know it was real and I know that it happened and I know… I know…